John Delcos enters his third season covering the Mets for The Journal News after eight seasons on the Yankees beat. Prior to coming to New York, John covered the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Browns and Cleveland Indians.

Related Posts

27 Comments

matt B in AZ

usually when teams go on long winning streaks half way through the season, they burn out and don’t amount to anything. i’ve lost all hope in this team, and 3 years from now we’ll look back on this .500-at-best, 3rd place season and say “hmmm…wasn’t there a 9ish game winning streak that year?”...”o well..”

my biggest concern is the closer. This division is for the taking. With or without Pedro, The Mets have the best starting rotation in the league with the breakout of Pelfrey. I have documented Wagners terrible record in big games on the all star thread. With all the talk of Castillo maybe not getting his starting role back, regardless of his contract. I wonder if the braintrust will consider moving Wagner out of the closers spot if he continues to sputter.

The biggest 2nd half question is not on your list JD. It has to be Church. If he is healthy, Mets can live w/Tatis/Chavez. If he is not, then offense could struggle putting pressure on pitching….

First 30 games will decide season as Mets have 24 against teams (3 against Phils, 3 against Cards; rest are against Bucs, Astros, Pads, Nats, Reds and Marlins) they ought to be able to handle. The last 37 are tougher.

And Phils first 28 are tougher including a west coast trip and first 12 of 15 on road.

20-10/19-11 needed in these next 30 games to have a shot at division (only realistic chance for playoffs).

All games are important. We saw that last season when the team crashed and burned playing lousy teams like Florida and the Gnats. Team has to take care of business. Hustle. None of this “we have so much talent sometimes I think we just get bored” they had in 2007 and in the period after 1986.

I worry about Wagner but is Lidge in Philadelphia reliable? I got to see it to believe it.

A) Pedro will pitch .500 for the rest of the season
B) Johan is still too good of a pitcher and will win more than the Mets lose in the 2nd half
C) Delgado is over-the-hill, but will produce 20-25 hrs and drive in 85-90 rbi’s
D) Wagner is just OK, not an elite closer but serviceable (still better than Benitez)
E) Maine and Perez and Pelfrey will be close to 15 game winners this year
F) For the most part, this team will stay pretty much focused because Jerry Manuel is infinitely better manager than Willie

And there you have it…..it will be touch and go with the Mets making the playoffs this year. If they play .537 baseball (same as 1st half), they will win only 87 games. I think they need to get to 90 and it is possible if they get off to a good start this weekend…..

3 Biggest questions for me are Pedro, Delgado, and Church. Church makes the line up better. Pedro was pitching well, but hopefully, he can get past this groin/shoulder issue, and Delgado needs to continue his current play. Hopefully Johan has a signature 2nd half, Perez continues to pitch well, Maine pitches better, and Pelfrey does everything he is doing right now.

I think Pedro will only show us flashes of his old self, and otherwise will be more of a 500 pitcher the rest of the season.

Delgado, as others have said, will be a .250 hitter with about 25 homers and 80-85 rbi’s.

Santana will continue to turn in quality performances and will have more run support (I hope) the rest of the way.

Maine, I think, will straighten out his issues of late and be a 15+ winner this year.

The key behind OP will be how they handle him after his next not so great mound performance. That, and, how much pressure his agent puts on him to perform towards the end of the year.

Ryan Church is someone I think can help the Mets big if he can come back.

I am sure that Wagner is going to make a lot of games unecessarily interesting the rest of the way. The Mets hopefully have learned by now NEVER to bring him in in the middle of an inning, or, any where near Philadelphia.

If the Mets can get a few breaks, and, with the strength of the NL East as a whole, I think they still cannot be counted out.

Mets Fans,
I was just interested to see the production of Carlos Delgado since Jerry Manuel became the manager. I just did a rough calculation and came up with .363 clip? If that is WOW!! Can someone confirm please?

Pedro is definitely less healthy than the Mets are letting on, as always. Why he wasn’t put on the DL just for safety is beyond me.

Delgado’ll have sporadic really great looking games that obscure long spells of absolutely nothing, as always. “Oooooh, pretty home run! I’ve completely forgotten that he went 2-30 in the last six games!”

Santana will get some more support but not enough for all these idiots saying that he’s “underachieving” to notice that he’s got the 4th best ERA in the National League. Distracted by Delgado’s very occasional moonshots I’m sure.

Ollie will continue to be good with occasional hiccups. Maine will continue to be uneven as hell.

There will be more focus than there was but not enough to make up on still depending on so very much age.

The Mets are certainly no longer embarassing but the fact remains that if Philly’s bats ever wake up, the team we root for is screwed.

My concerns or things the Mets need to have happen in order to make the playoffs:

Reyes has to stay out of a long slump
Church has to come back healthy
Maine has to start pitching like the top of the rotation starter we thought he could be
The continued development of Mike Pelfrey. Right now he is pitching like the #2 guy on the staff.

Just wanted to spark a little logical conversation in response to Ray’s earlier comment on moving Wagner out of the Closer’s Role. So my question is who else on this team do you feel has what it takes to Close.

Is Duaner ready at this point in his Career/Comeback ?

Do we trust Heilman not to hang a changeup in a big spot?

I only list those two guys because I dont see a trade as a viable option as the mets have a lot bigger fish to fry if they chose to make a move. Would love to see everyone’s thoughts.

Scoop, Yes, Billy the kid has been a great closer in his career during the regular season. During the post season his cumulative ERA is 9.58 for his career with a 10.80 all star ERA. In other words, the guy is not a big game pitcher. While I can see the Mets still winning the division with him closing, I cant see a pennant or even a WS appearance with this dude. Pedro is an interesting Idea, but who would take his spot? and how would he respond? Heilman has the best stuff in the pen. If he continues to show he has straightened out his head problems, he would be an excellent closer. I also like Joe Smith, who doesnt give up many longballs. To Billy the Kid, I once won 20 games in a season. Top that choker!!

Ollie’s looked good recently while Maine has stayed uneven… the Warthog seems to have helped Pelfrey and Ollie a lot more than he’s helped Maine, for reasons I suppose only the Mets understand.

And… no… you don’t give Delgado any credit, we’re already dangerously close to Minaya taking the supreme idiot move and picking up his option for next year.

Look, yes, when he’s really rested, when he’s up against a mediocre rightie, he still looks like he can hit dingers. That’s… great, that’s wonderful, if they ever bring back the old “Home Run Derby” show he can definitely go there.

He can’t field his position and he’s inconsistent as hell for average. Someone has to be out there hoping to hold out for a psychic butterfly effect and maybe maybe maybe the Mets front-office realizes how done this guy is.

Gotta at least try it. Someone’s gotta speak up to ignore the moonshots in the laughers and point out that he’s just too beat up and old to keep a second longer than you’re stuck with him.

If he produces a little while you’re stuck with him, mazeltov, but you have to throw him away. He’s old, he’s beat-up, let him fade away as a DH for the Mariners or something.

Hey Billy/Sloppy, There are some whiners who are Mets fans, but at least most of them dont hide under different names to take potshots at other posters here. And how come you got all quiet about Omar and Jerry, you phoney coward.

Billy/Sloppy/DC/Buck/Guv … All your personalities are sounding alike, which is to say boring and annoying. Stick with one name and try to bring something to the table. And, stop attacking other posters. You’re not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer to be ripping others.-JD